D&D Ideas — Crystals

D&D Ideas — Crystals

May 15, 2022

Dungeons & Dragons/ Editorial/ Game Master Tips

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is crystals, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of crystals our Mage Forge collection includes a variety of crystals with all sorts of amazing magical properties. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Lean into randomness from the week that was! Discover new play aids, hack a hack-and-slash system to create a new game and revisit the Heroes of Krynn plus our weekly hangout, a live chat with an industry pro, a new chapter in Nerarchist Ted’s all wizard D&D campaign and our Zoo Mafia live playtest continues to round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Let’s see what we can do with another ambiguous topic. Crystals have featured in D&D for as long as I can remember — Crystal Spheres in Spelljammer, crystals featured in Dark Sun to be used with psionics and Eberron has dragonshards, which again are crystals.

My homebrew campaign called Under the Dome features crystals heavily. The world has been ravished by chaos magic, which now appears randomly in the form of chaos storms. Once these storms sweep through an area they leave behind objects and creatures transformed into chaos crystals. The inhabitants of the world refer to them as grind crystals. The concept of creatures being turned into grind crystals has already been introduced but they’ve all been inert and appear to be nonliving thus far.

During the next arc I want to introduce the idea of creatures being turned into grind crystals but living and going along with their lives in their new forms. First I’m thinking of a pack of wolves led by a dire wolf. Their skin will be crystal hard and they will have a pension for wolfing down raw grind crystals. They’ll still eat their normal diet by substituting some of their nutrition with it. They’ll actually have a biological need for the crystals, but won’t need it as much as they require their normal diets.

Another thing that this will do will make crystal harvesting harder. The crystal scavengers would need to deal grind crystal creatures that now compete with them for the raw grind crystals. It also becomes a place that grindcrystal creatures will congregate.

Alpha Grind Crystal Wolf

Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)

Hit Points 37 (5d10 +10)

Speed 50 ft.

Strength 17 (+3)
Dexterity 15 (+2)
Constitution 15 (+2)
Intelligence 3 (-4)
Wisdom 12 (+1)
Charisma 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4
Damage Vulnerabilities Thunder
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities Poison
Condition Immunities Poison
Senses passive Perception 13, tremorsense 60 ft.
Languages —
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2

Keen Hearing and Smell. The Alpha Grind Crystal Wolf has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics. The Alpha Grind Crystal Wolf has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the Alpha Grind Crystal Wolf’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the Alpha Grind Crystal Wolf can make claws attack against it as a bonus action.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.

Grind Crystal Wolf

Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)

Hit Points 11 (2d8 +2)

Speed 40 ft.

Strength 12 (+1)
Dexterity 15 (+2)
Constitution 12 (+1)
Intelligence 3 (-4)
Wisdom 12 (+1)
Charisma 6 (-2)

Keen Hearing and Smell. The wolf has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics. The wolf has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the wolf’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 +2) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the Grind Crystal Wolf can make claws attack against it as a bonus action.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage.

Grind Crystal Creature Template

Type becomes monstrosity
Armor Class increases to 18
Senses tremorsense 60 ft.
Damage Vulnerabilities Thunder
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities Poison
Condition Immunities Poison
Challenge +1/2 round down
Gain a Bite and Claws Attack
- Damage based on size:
  - Small 1d3
  - Medium 1d4
  - Large 1d6
  - Huge 1d8
  - Gargantuan 1d10

From Ted’s Head

Crystals can be used a large variety of ways in D&D. Be they used to enhance an area, collect wealth, represent wealth or make objects of power they are great and fit well into the fantasy element. I wish I could live in the kind world I see reflected in fantasy artwork incorporating crystals at times.

In my D&D games crystals have been used not only as terrain but the very substance from which I have created monsters. I purchased a large assortment of plastic crystals for crafts and decided to construct golems out of them. I had several different types and colors of crystals and I went for it. I used them in the penultimate session of my Curse of Zoltan campaign and I had a lot of fun with them. When this topic came up I thought it would be awesome to share the stat blocks I made a long time ago with all of you.

Before I do I want to share an anecdote related to this particular monster and the campaign in general. I have run a lot of games for 5E D&D and in my later campaigns I started using Google Docs as a way to organize all my notes and keep the game all in one place. However during the Curse of Zoltan I did not. I generally made new docs. Add to this how Zoltan was given different names by the players and different spellings by me, trying to find my session notes two years later was a hassle. But I was successful in locating the notes and this amazing set of golems. I hope you enjoy the anecdote at my expense and the golem I created for the game. Without further ado:

Quartz Golem

Large construct, unaligned

Armor Class 17 (Natural Armor)

Hit Points 178 (17d10 +85)

Speed 30 ft.

Strength 22 (+6)
Dexterity 9 (-1)
Constitution 20 (+5)
Intelligence 3 (-4)
Wisdom 11 (+0)
Charisma 1 (-5)

Damage Immunities Poison, Psychic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Adamantine

Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned

Senses Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 10

Languages Understands the languages of its creator but can’t speak

Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Immutable Form. The golem is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Magic Resistance. The golem has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons. The golem’s weapon attacks are magical.

Actions

Multiattack. The golem makes two slam attacks.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

The Quartz golem is one several types. Choose from the list below and add the following abilities to the base monster.

Amethyst. Add 2d6 necrotic damage to each attack, immune to necrotic damage
Sapphire. Immune to ice and lightning damage, attacks have DC 16 CON save or suffer slow effect
Ruby. Add cone of flame attack: (Recharge 5-6) DC 16 DEX save for half 8d8 fire damage
Topaz. Bonus action gain haste — +2 AC, extra attack, extra speed (+20 feet)
Peridot. Reaction after attack to spit gouts of acid: DC 16 DEX save for half 4d6 acid damage

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Crystals as a discussion topic as it relates to 5E D&D came about not unsurprisingly but unexpectedly during an earlier live chat. While talking with Dave about temples the conversation included something about magic crystals and it struck me how prevalent these solid materials with highly ordered microscopic structures seem to be in fantasy stories. Why?

A bit of research turned up some interesting results. Several sources and lots of anecdotal evidence point to the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s. But a belief in the magical power of crystals goes back much further than this. Carl Sagan’s book The Demon-Haunted World looks at Plato’s account of Atlantis where crystals were used to read minds and transmit thought. There’s also historical evidence of crystals used in magical formulae of ancient Sumerians as far back as 4500 BC.

For my 2cp crystals’ popularity in fantasy stories lies firmly in their relatability, which is a quality I find crucial to the entire RPG experience. Because crystals offering some extraordinary benefit span the length and breadth of human history they’re a perfectly aligned vessel into which we can imbue magical properties and no one bats an eye.

My own experience with crystals in 5E D&D specifically shows up in our own Bestiary of Benevolent Monsters in the form of Perfection Seekers. I went deep down the rabbit hole creating these three related creatures along with a wealth of lore to help incorporate them into a game. The idea of entities seeking perfection taking on a very crystalline quality made sense to me and I had a lot of fun developing those concepts. Players in games where they’ve shown up seemed to really dig them too. No characters have attempted to achieve perfection themselves yet though. It ain’t easy!

Overall I feel crystals work so well in a game like 5E D&D because the word itself is evocative enough to generate something in players’ minds with little else. Describing a crystal filled cave, a crystal topped scepter or a crystalline creature almost certainly conveys something more. But there’s an intrinsic mysteriousness about crystals at the same time.

As to why Wizards of the Coast removed crystal spheres (and phlogiston) from the upcoming 5E D&D version of Spelljammer I have no idea but thankfully I’ve been playing with concepts from that setting in my games throughout every edition so it doesn’t really matter to me.

*Featured image — Mage Forge is ideal for GMs who run short on time for game prep by providing magic items with the potential to define your adventures and the characters who uncover them. Check out Mage Forge here!

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